Naka Kon 2013! AKA- HOLY CRAP NOBUO UEMASTU- Con

Hello good ladies and gentleman!

I'm happy, exhausted, sore in places I had no idea existed (especially my feet) but I am a very very "happy camper" as they would say. Naka-Kon was pretty awesome! I will admit that there were a few bugs in a couple places, and there is on major thing I'm annoyed by but I'll get to that later. ::

Now for the infamous con journal!

Da  Da DAAAAA

Friday-
As I live in KC and everybody else lives quite a few hours out we all decided to meet at the hotel. It's there I was glomped by Liz and Malinda (WHOM I HADN'T SEEN SINCE A-FEST!) and gave a ton of hugs to Dan, Dana, Jacq, Abby, Jasmine, Kayla, and Kyle. We unpacked our cars and ended up going to our rooms (we had wanted two adjoining rooms with fridges, sadly the hotel wasn't able to give us that completely but you know how hotels are) quickly to change before Pre-Reg. I hopped into Poison Ivy to join Liz who was cosplaying Harley Quinn, and her boyfriend James who was cosplaying Hugo Strange. And then we went to "The Line".

I know your wondering what I mean by the quotation marks but let met tell you that monster of a line deserved them. Now usually our past Naka-Kons have consisted of a line that we waited at least fifteen or so minutes tops (last year it took us five minutes to get our group badges). This year... this year was the definition of clusterf**k. First off there were no lines for pre-reg and registration it was all one solid line, we had people in said line who were being douchebags to those who were just trying to ask questions, and then we had con employees running around in the room trying to find those who registered in groups. I was a little concerned that we didn't need id's when the con volunteer came up to us but she first asked us who our group leader was and as the only people who knew that information was in our group it probably wasn't needed anyway.  

Anyway after our big boss battle with "The Line" and after we ran around giving everyone their badges, our Batman villians group headed to the dealers room with Abby, Jasmine, Kayla (all three were cosplaying Sugar Rush Racers!), Dan ,and Dana (who was cosplaying from Adventure Time).

Although there were quite a few gems there (I'm dying to get my hands on a
"Anime Cosplay!- Drugs would be cheaper" as I've laughed so hard at it so many times now), it really felt like the dealers room was smaller compaired to last year, especially Artist's Alley. But it was still pretty nice, and they did have a lot of things I didn't even know existed much less could buy. We then sat down and had a bit of con food which was actually pretty good (I was cheap and grabbed a plate of fries which were all kinds of awesome, and a bottle of water) and then went a wondering around a bit until we met back up with Malinda and Kyle (who were Zack and Cloud when they went to Nobuo Uesmastu's autograph line) as we were heading back up to the room to take a bit of a break. There Malinda got into Robin and us Batman villians had a Robin to toy with (you know we love ya Malinda! ). We also checked out the "Sexism in Anime" panel (which was very interesting) before we met up with a few "Harley Quinns" which made our own  "Harley Quinn" very happy.

Eventually we changed out of cosplay and decided to relax and celebrate Liz's phone interview which she found out she had gotten at the bar for a bit (I have to say I may have to check out Cosmo's a bit more and hey! I'm 24! ). After some horsing around in the other room, we came back to our own and crashed.

Saturday-

After waking up around nine or so I pulled on Flashback/Crisis Core Tifa, to join Malinda (who was Zidane from Final Fantasy IX) and Kyle (who was Guts from Berserk) and we decided to wonder around a bit until the Nobuo Uemastu Q&A. I have to say I loved all of the questions that were asked (especially the one Malinda asked which I got on V-Log). I'm a bit bummed that I couldn't stay as I wanted to go to the Autograph line that day so I left a bit early and, after chatting with a few people on Kingdom Hearts, Final Fantasy (I hope they one day bring VI to the 3DS because I want it, also I NEED to start up XI again), and our favorite songs that Nobuo composed our line started to move.

I have to say I was pretty proud of myself for not geeking out (completely) when I went to get his autograph. I'm happy to say I was pretty calm when I got the poster I got (it's from his music group) signed. But it's when I took off my cowboy hat to have him sign it that was probably my favorite. At first Nobuo looked confused and then he looked at my cosplay up and down smiled, chuckled, and I nearly jumped in triumph as I could tell he knew who I was (it seemed that very few people recognized me as Tifa but seeing as most of that outfit was on the PSP's games I can't say I blame them). Right afterwards I joined Malinda in some pictures before hitting up the Masquerade.

Now I hadn't been sure about checking it out as Liz and Kayla had tried to enter their Sly Cooper and Bentley cosplays and were turned down (which was crap IMHO). But I decided to give it a shot. There were quite a few pretty cosplays, one of which (I can't remember the name of the Anime) had a full suit of armor which made me jaw drop, and there were quite a few fun skits (I loved the one with Marik and Bakura but I'm a bit biased ). I can't say I stuck around for the award ceremonies but I liked what I saw and I hope the judges did too. ^^

Now I had planned on pulling on Sephiroth right after that as Saturday was my Final Fantasy day but seeing as everything ached already... putting on my binding wasn't going to happen. So I pulled on Emma Swan instead and, with Malinda, checked out a "Making and Altering Patterns" Panel and a "Wig styling and Care" Panel hosted by "God Save the Queen Fashions". I made sure to take notes on my iPod, especially at the wig panel as I'm still learning wig styling and care, before we met up with Abby in her amazing Ice Prince cosplay, Jasmine in her lovely Flame Princess cosplay, Liz, James, Jacq, Dan, Dana, Shaun, Dustin, Kyle, and everyone else in our group (whom I'm forgetting ATM! I'm sorry I haven't had my morning tea or coffee!) as well as a few friends we hadn't seen in ever.

After getting changing into some normal clothes I joined Liz, James, Abby, Jasmine, Shaun, and Dustin at the bar for a bit and then the rave. I have to say it was my second rave to date and I forgot how much fun raves could be. This one was quite a lot of fun, besides the people around who lacked common sense when it came to those who were swinging glow sticks around like myself (ProTip- give them a wide berth, they can't always see when others are coming and don't blame them if you accidently get hit as you kinda literally and figuratively walked right into that one). I'm still aching from that one but it was so worth it.

After awhile we got exhauseted headed back to the room, cleaned up, packed up a little, and watched a pretty amusing episode of an Anime Jacq had on her laptop (don't remember the name but it featured Buddha and Jesus as roommates in an apartment complex), before we crashed.

Sunday
After various alarms we all woke up around nine or ten, got dressed, ate a little bit of yogurt for breakfast, and started packing what we didn't or couldn't pack the night before. After a few goodbyes Malinda, Kyle, and many of our friends, and a wondering around the dealers room, I went with everyone else to Panera down the street for lunch and then my ride showed up and I said good bye for now (I'm looking into visiting between now and A-Cen if I can!).

The Verdict

Naka has always been a pretty good con for me and my friends and this year was no different. Yes we did have some issue with "The Line", and the Masquerade (who let some Lego Batman and Robin characters compete but not a Sly Cooper group? The hell man!), but all in all I loved the con itself. It was amazing meeting Nobuo, seeing friends I hadn't seen in for-ever.

I did have a few problems though with contacting friends as I could barely hear my phone ring much less be able to answer it. I also wasn't able to see a few people that I wanted to see or hang out with half as long as I wanted to but that's a nice sized con for ya. There were also a few socially awkward people but it wasn't any biggie.

The Cass Cam vids
As you all know, I v-log con's. It's what I do for fun sometimes so I did record here and there. I will admit that I didn't record on Sunday but it's no big thing as I don't record much on the last day of cons anyway. I do plan on working these vid's soon however I won't release them until after the A-Fest 2012 ones. I'm going to try to get back into the habit of working on V-Logs when I'm fully rested and while the memory of the con is fresh. So please keep and eye out on that.

Now the next con is A-Cen! I have to say after last year I'm super excited! I'll be pre-reg-ing soon and thus far I only have Zuko, and Rule 63/Fem Castiel 100% planned. I'm considering maybe pulling Roxas out again, maybe working on a Storybrooke version of Belle (I've already planned on working on her gold dress which I've been drooling over for a year now), and a few other things but nothing is set in stone. I'll probably shout out to my Facebook page and Twitter when I decide.

Well It's high time I get some breakfast! I'll be posting a journal soon with the A-Fest 2012 V-Logs and the Naka 2013 ones as well as a few pictures from the con. Until then see ya later and DFTBA!